Jonathan Jones on art + Barcelona | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog+travel/barcelona
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Jonathan Jones: Is the Sagrada Familia being banalised in the name of tourism?http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/dec/08/gaudi-sagrada-familia
<p>Antoni Gaud&iacute; was the most modern and the most medieval of souls. The great Catalan architect, whose ecstatic, organic vision has made his buildings among the world's best-loved, saw himself as recreating a Christian society through art. What makes him so great is that his architecture expresses that longing with no regard for convention and no tyranny of tradition, and with such an enthusiasm for the techniques and fragments of modern life - the shards of mosaic on his facades, the dynamism of his interiors - that it becomes an art of energy and change even as it wishes for order. Gaud&iacute;'s genius is inexhaustibly rich. But has it been betrayed?</p><p>A group of Spanish architects and art world types has savagely denounced the continuing work to complete Gaud&iacute;'s religious masterpiece <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/aug/14/gaudi.sagrada.familia">the Sagrada Familia</a>. Should work on this vast church - often mistaken, with good reason, for Barcelona's cathedral – have been carried on, after his death in 1926 left it unfinished? The grumpy intellectuals say no. Gaud&iacute;, they complain, is being banalised in the name of tourism.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/dec/08/gaudi-sagrada-familia">Continue reading...</a>ArchitectureArt and designCultureBarcelonaSpainCataloniaTravelAntoni GaudíMon, 08 Dec 2008 11:14:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/dec/08/gaudi-sagrada-familiaGettySpanish inquisition ... the church of the Sagrada Familia. Photograph: GettyJonathan Jones2008-12-08T11:14:04Z